


Man at His Best

by Hornet394



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Esquire - Freeform, Gen, Interviews, Man At His Best, Official translation, Translation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-16
Updated: 2018-01-16
Packaged: 2019-03-05 17:34:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,799
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13392813
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hornet394/pseuds/Hornet394
Summary: Translation ofDecember 2017 Esquire interview with YixingMan of the Year, Man at His Best issue





	Man at His Best

“New York Times” columnist Nicholas Kristof once said, “The world has been transformed over the last 250 years by what might be called a revolution of empathy driven by the humanities. What tamed us was, in part, books. Harriet Beecher Stowe’s “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” famously contributed to the abolitionist movement, and “ Black Beauty ” helped change the way we treat animals. In 2017, with the world a mess, I’d say we need not only drones but also Big Bird, and poetry and philosophy.

The theme of this year’s “Man at his Best” is “Cultural Hero”. We have once again invited the pioneers of 2017, whom have achieved breakthrough progress in different areas, to share with us what it means to be a “cultural hero”, how to become a “cultural hero”, and how to use yourself to affect other’s cultural values.

In a society where artificial intelligence, sharing economy, cashless payment etc. is reforming rapidly, where capital and technical skill lead the way, these “cultural heroes” insist on using their own creativity and impact to push forward cultural development, providing public with a more diverse worldview. (We) hope that their sharing can inspire you.

 

LAY Zhang Yixing - Idol of the Year

“Music is what I have always wanted to do”

 

_ In 2017, Zhang Yixing released his second original album “SHEEP”, which entered iTunes world music chart TOP 10 at the end. He believes that labour will reap equal rewards. _

After the photoshoot for the cover, Zhang Yixing walked briskly back to the dressing room. This is just a short break during work, but Zhang Yixing clearly isn’t prepared to waste it. His eyes are glued to the computer screen on the dressing table, his finger dragging the waveform in the audio software, heavy heartbeat-like rhythm echoing in the crowded space now and then.

This is how Zhang Yixing normally is. On the 7th of October, 2017, Zhang Yixing’s second solo album “SHEEP” was released. From writing the lyrics to composing the music; from the MV’s storyboard to planning the CD, cover, and design of the inner pages, Zhang Yixing had participated fully.

“I always believe that if you want to move the earth, the first thing you need to do is find a fulcrum - find something that you like, or are good at, then try your best and throw everything into it ( _T/N_ __:_ original quote by Archimedes _ ).” With a simple white T-shirt on, Zhang Yixing looks far more relaxed sitting in the dressing room as compared to being on the stage or in variety shows.

When music is mentioned, it seems like some invisible switch on Zhang Yixing’s body is activated, causing this big boy, his face youthful and maturing, to start talking endlessly. To Zhang Yixing, music is the fulcrum that can move the earth. “Music is what I have always wanted to do, and is what I am best at.”

 

I Think It Is Still Quite Tragic

 

Zhang Yixing is used to calling all the seniors he had worked with as “Gege”  ( _T/N:_ _older brother in Chinese)_ . During “Zhang Yixing 2017 Career Showcase”, “Xiaozhu Ge” Luo Zhixiang appeared on screen and exposed this of him: When they were filming “Go Fighting” together, Zhang Yixing often rushed into his room with his computer in the middle of the night, letting him listen to music that had just been finished.

Zhang Yixing had already acted as producer in his first album “Lose Control”. “What does being the producer mean? It means to have a grip over everything. From the big things such as writing the lyrics, writing the music, composing the music, shooting the MV, choreographing, post-production, to the small things like choosing the photo samples for a cover, all of these require my ideas.” This meticulous and personal approach extended to his second album “SHEEP” - the album that Zhang Yixing refers to as his “second son”.

The birth of this child was not smooth. As soon as the planning of the album was mentioned, an overwhelming amount of questions came at him. “A lot of people asked me why I am still releasing physical albums, it’s ok to just have a digital one.” Even during the team discussion period, there were a lot of different voices in the company. “Physical albums are too hard to make, give up. Every day I hear people telling me that it’s not worth it etc. But I really didn’t want to give up.”

To Zhang Yixing, physical albums are sentiment, as well as dreams. The process of chasing after your dreams cannot be painless. When preparing for “Lose Control”, Zhang Yixing only slept two or three hours every day, and he thought about how to make music as soon as he opened his eyes. At night, as long as someone in the team was still awake, Zhang Yixing would not sleep as well, he would seize the time to express his desires. From preparing to release, “SHEEP” took around one year. Regardless of what kind of work he was doing, as long as there was a little bit of free time he could make use of, he would “seamlessly” make use of it, immediately throwing himself into music. He once wrote lyrics during a flight. Zhang Yixing is afraid of taking the plane, every time there is turbulence he becomes nervous. Yet, a lot of the musical instruments needed for the new album are only provided abroad, so Zhang Yixing can only hold his fears in and fly again and again to outside the country.

To devote all his attention to music, he rejected a huge amount of invitations. “A lot of geges invited me to film TV dramas, films, I rejected them all. The reason for rejection is to make music. A lot of people may think, do you really need that much time for music? I also always apologize to them, I say I am really sorry, making music is not playing around for me, I really do everything myself. It’s not like someone else hands me a song, and if I’m okay with it, I just record it and be done with it.”

Even though Zhang Yixing had acted as producer since his first album “Lose Control”, the statement “making his own music” has become a truth that has startled a lot of people. “Some composers see me for the first time and are startled, you really made (music) by yourself?” Zhang Yixing isn’t happy to hear this sentence. “What do you mean by I really made it by myself? Of course I made it by myself. I’m not too happy with this point. Eventually after becoming friends with those composers, these composers would go and tell others, Zhang Yixing had really created a lot of the music in here.” After a slight pause, Zhang Yixing carefully chooses his next words. “I think it’s quite tragic.”

Yet even in the atmosphere of “not trusting in their idols to make their own music” that exists in the Chinese music industry, there are music critics who have long noticed Zhang Yixing’s creative abilities. The sharp-tongued music critic Erdi is unusually gentle when commenting on Zhang Yixing. “The taste that can be seen in his album can also be found in the song choices of his normal cover performances. At one variety show he created a parody song on the spot, 抠脑袋之歌 _(T/N: The Head Scratching Song, 160920 Planters Broadcast)_ , managing to imbue some freshness into the old canon chord progression, showing that he has quite some musical sense and creative inspiration.”

 

Initial Intentions

 

To Zhang Yixing, creation is a habit that has been going on for over ten years. From listening to the “Four Heavenly Kings” to listening to Jay Chou, Leehom Wang, JJ Lin, at thirteen, fourteen years of age, Zhang Yixing believed his head was filled with melodies. He started composing songs then, it could be said that it was the start of his musical creation nowadays.

Starting from melody, he naturally developed a desire to understand how a song is born. “Why is that when I hum a melody, some teachers would be so good and be able to create a song? I wanted to understand more, and an urge budded to learn more about orchestration, harmonizer, and understand production.

Zhang Yixing’s first impression of himself coming in contact with composing was in junior secondary, he used a software with an icon which was a “blue curve” to mix and edit all sorts of sounds. Later, he started to watch videos on his own, learning composing, and started to create track by track. “We all like heavier bass sounds, but sometimes the bass will have flaws, so I put in the drums as well.” To Zhang Yixing, there is no teacher in composing and producing, it is all up to his own practice and exploration. “Eventually I came in contact with Logic, and started looking at each calibration, learning the shortcut keys, at least seven or eight years ago. Although I am not the best, I am still pleased with the things I make. They’re not bad.”

Zhang Yixing uses the phrase “grasping every 0.1 second” to describe his condition when he makes music. He cannot let go of each 0.1 second, grabbing each frame, each track, each note. He describes himself having the perfectionist attitude of a Libra, but also the indecisiveness of a Libra when it comes to music. It was confirmed from the beginning that “SHEEP” would have 10 songs - because 10 is Zhang Yixing’s lucky number. Yet, even before entering the recording studio, Yixing had created “four or five nice songs”. “Then we had 15 songs, that couldn’t be the case, we needed to record it, and recording takes time.” A few decision points, it was hard for Zhang Yixing to make choices, and even swayed back and forth between 10 songs or 12 songs. “There were two songs that were really good, should it be included? If they were included, the concept of ‘10’ would be broken, you’d have to start over in creating the concept. We also didn’t have the time, so in the end there were only 10 songs.”

The 10 songs are connected by the theme of Hip-hop, and except for the African American style of heavy beat and R&B that Zhang Yixing likes, it is also packaged with Trap, Synth-pop, and EDM, all the most international styles of this era. Zhang Yixing had even added in very traditional Chinese instrumental elements into his music, such as the dizi, erhu, guzheng, even the cymbals. Over half of the songs in the album were composed by Zhang Yixing alone, Zhang Yixing thought that these 10 songs show his personal musical style very fully, and even contemplated naming these ten songs with the arabic numbers 1 to 10. “You don’t need to care about the title of the song, you just need to feel the music, the song title is what you think it is.”

Music critic Zhao Nanfang thinks this album is a product with a strong memorable style. From the album, he hears the retro feel of R&B music at its peaks which Michael Jackson had reigned supreme. Meanwhile, Erdi hears a shadow of millennial R&B that had exploded in the Chinese music industry. When comparing this to how Zhang Yixing has grown, he believes that this seems to be the initial intentions of Zhang Yixing’s musical journey. He believes that in the overall packaging, Zhang Yixing did not single-mindedly pursue the trendiest in the world, but chose to “be himself”. “For singers who create their albums, their product will become one with their own temperament, adding onto and combining with one another, and is easier to develop a complete and independent musical personality.” Erdi predicts Zhang Yixing’s future, “perhaps at the early stage of starting out together, he doesn’t have the maturity or structure of singers who create their albums. But in the long run, creative singers/singer-songwriters have a higher limit and possibility when it comes to music.”

 

There Will Always Be An Equal Reward

 

Zhang Yixing deeply believes in that all hard work will reap rewards. This belief comes from his past journey. As a child he learnt traditional chinese opera, practicing intonation, building up foundational skills; practicing cloud hand gestures and gait. This period seemed to only be an experience in which his mum wanted to “cultivate his taste”, however it actually came of use when filming for the TV drama “The Mystic Nine”.

Popular commentary believe that the “Big IP”  _ (T/N: Chinese slang meaning dramas based on popular books, video games etc) _ TV drama “The Mystic Nine” helped him capture a lot of young-aged fans, the nation’s prime time drama “To Be a Better Man” helped him attract middle to high-aged group of fans, and “Go Fighting” helped this young man build up popular recognition. Zhang Yixing still remembers the first time he had met these “geges”.

“The geges came one by one. Xun ge is the most affable and good-natured, and then he said he knew the crosstalker _(T/N: a form of Chinese stand up comedy)_ Teacher Da Bing. I learnt Chinese performance folk art, and I especially like Teacher Da Bing, so instantly I felt that the two of us had become much closer.

Buo ge “who looked the most affable” and “scary from beginning until the end” Hong Lei ge appeared one after another, and Huang Lei is the one who appeared last. “Lei ge came afterwards, because he needed to take his daughter to school, I remember this clearly. At then I was so nervous I was sweating.” Eventually he saw Show Luo, and Zhang Yixing had enthusiastically told “Xiaozhu ge” that he had imitated his robotic dance as a kid. “Xiaozhu ge said bullshit. I said it’s true ge.”

“Go Fighting” is in its third season, and this youngest member, most cared for by the Go Fighting gang, has developed a strong friendship with his “geges”. Someone used “providing warmth with smoke and fire, an act that is heavy yet seems light” to describe this relationship. Yet to Zhang Yixing in the middle of this, it is more like his “geges” are using their words and their actions to teach him. “Every gege really has his own talent, so he is truly confident.”

Zhang Yixing can always quickly capture the things behind such confidence. When filming for “Founding of an Army”, he saw the homework and diagrams Director Andrew Lau did everyday, and expressed awe in his heart for how serious the great director is. He remembered that the schedule for filming one day was at 9 in the morning, but it was delayed until the afternoon. “Just because there was one shot before that that hadn’t been shot properly, and Director Lau insisted that that shot had to be done, so he was especially demanding of the very best. I was quite nervous.”

After the ordeal from “Founding of an Army”, Zhang Yixing took this “spirit” into filming his MV. To film the I NEED U MV, Zhang Yixing communicated with the director from the beginning of the storyboard, and even invited his grandfather and grandmother to act in it. “After shooting, the director edited a version of it that he found ok, but then I watched it,” Zhang Yixing’s expression shows a reluctance to say it out loud, “I said it’s a bit strange here... it’s off by quite a bit.” And then he sat next to the director “and looked at the shots one by one”. “The first day was to sort out the material, and after doing that, I talked to him for a bit.” Zhang Yixing didn’t know how to edit videos, so he used his hands to point out what he wanted on the screen. “I told the director to show this scene in this second. Trees, change, change to the cassette tape, and then change to me crossing the road. I told him this one by one, and it took three days to finish changing it.”

“SHEEP” was released on his 26th birthday. He didn’t think this album could make it into the TOP 10 of iTunes World Music Chart, but he believes hard work will lead to good results. “Last time I even told the staff in my studio, you can all see the hard work I’ve put into this album, if this album doesn’t get good results, you should give up as well, there’s no point in hard work. Of course these were pessimistic words, but I was thinking that I had put so much into this, I should have a equal return.”

 

Translated by Hornet394. Please do not repost without permission.

 


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